Glides and casters are used upon furniture so as to provide a wearing and sliding surface for the furniture, as well as providing a decorative flair. Glides come in various shapes, sizes and forms, such as, for example, inside-gripping and outside-gripping glides. The outside-gripping glides frequently include a barrel-shaped sleeve with a crimped or rolled-over end and a smooth base permanently attached to the sleeve. The tubular end of the furniture leg may be swaged and tapered, and the glide sleeve can be drivingly mounted upon the tubular end with the crimped edge engaging the outer tubular wall so as to frictionally grip and secure the glide. However, variations in manufacturing tolerances of both the tubing and the glide sleeve may lead to a coupling between the two elements which is not secure enough in order to maintain the glide upon the tubular end. In addition, the tubes are often chrome-plated or otherwise provided with a hard, smooth coating which further inhibits the gripping action of the glide sleeve upon the tubular end.
An alternative to the outside-gripping glide is the internally-gripping glide. A pedestal for insertion into the tubing end may project upwardly from the glide base and have extending fingers or arms. The gripping arms or fingers contact the inner wall of the tube so as to secure the glide within the tubular end. However, some of these inner-gripping glides present assembly problems for the following reasons: the necessary clearance for easy installation is not always or properly provided; the attendant flashing associated with plating at the tube ends inhibits gripping finger contact and gripping force for the glide; and a domelike mounting structure is sometimes included, which limits tube end penetration into the sleeve.
Tubular members extending from a seat or table are specific examples of furniture legs and a glide or caster is mounted upon the leg end so as to contact the floor. The glide provides a smooth, wearing surface for the furniture leg thus otherwise avoiding abrasive sliding by means of the relatively rough or sharp tube end, and also allows the furniture to be more easily moved upon a floor. The inner-gripping glides must be able to be secured to a tubular leg, which legs are frequently seam-welded tubing that have been plated with a hard coating, such as, for example, chrome. The plating operations often produce a chrome flash upon the inner surface of the tube, which must be overcome by means of an inner-grip glide. As noted, these tubular legs are frequently swaged and tapered and thus the outside-gripping glides must accommodate the hard-coating plated surface. The inner-gripping glides must accommodate the hard-coating flashing and an attendant seam kink frequently encountered with swaged, seam-welded tubing. In addition, the glides are often driven onto the tubing ends with a mallet and must be able to withstand this driving force without deformation of the glide structure or impairment of its operation. Therefore, a glide is desired, which overcomes these assembly detriments and enhances or expedites the furniture assembly operation.